The Cold War

This chapter covers the latter half of the Cold War from the 1970s through to the end of the Cold War. This chapter shows how the United States constructed an Oceans Policy following the failures at the first two UN Conventions on the Law of the Sea and, at the suggestion of the Soviet Union, participated in the Third and what would be final UN Law of the Sea convention in order to prevent unilateral claims of jurisdiction over the global high sea space. During this time period, the Carter Administration began conducting what would become known as Freedom of Navigation Operations to contest what the United States perceived to be illegitimate claims of de jure sovereignty over the high seas. This Freedom of Navigation Program was subsequently championed by the Reagan administration.